• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / News Archive / London 2012 ‘provides unique chance to improve access in capital’

London 2012 ‘provides unique chance to improve access in capital’

By guest on 2nd September 2009 Category: News Archive

Listen

The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London provide a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to improve access, inclusion and attitudes to disability, a conference has heard.

David Morris, who coordinates inclusion and access for LOCOG, the organising committee of the Games, told the Disability Capital event that 2012 was a chance to leave “a real legacy for generations to come”.

Morris, former senior disability policy adviser to the Mayor of London, said London in 2012 would see the largest ever number of disabled and Deaf people in any city at one time.

He told delegates to the event, organised by the Mayor: “There are going to be lots and lots and lots of us.”

But he said disabled people and organisations must “work together” and “maximise resources” and that it was vital not to be complacent.

He added: “I know we are not going to achieve 100 per cent of what is possible, but if we achieve 10 per cent it will leave a legacy.”

He highlighted issues such as the shortage of accessible hotel rooms in London and access on the tube network, and called on disabled people to complain when they are denied access to a restaurant.

Dan Biddle, who became disabled in the July 2005 London bombings and is now an access consultant for LOCOG, said there was a “once in a generation opportunity to create an inclusive London”.

He described visiting the tourist hotspot of Covent Garden to assess the access and encountering a series of barriers, including a lack of accessible parking spaces and drop kerbs, cobblestones, and “non-existent” signage and information and inaccessible shops in the piazza.

Chris Holmes, who won nine gold medals as a Paralympic swimmer, said the 2012 Games would be the first to have a “completely 100 per cent integrated” approach to planning and delivering the Paralympics and Olympics.

Holmes, LOCOG’s director of Paralympic integration, said the Paralympic Games had “equal status, thought, time and effort” put into them as the Olympics.

He said he wanted the public to know and understand Paralympic sports and stars before they see them live and on their televisions in 2012.

He added: “We want the Games to inspire every disabled young person across the country to take up sport.”

25 September 2009

Share this post:

TwitterFacebookWhatsAppReddit

Related

‘Muddled’ blue badge reforms ‘are to blame for renewal delays’
6th February 2015
UN debate will be reminder of true inclusive education
6th February 2015
IDS breaks pledge on PIP waiting-times, as tens of thousands still queue for months
30th January 2015

Primary Sidebar

Access

Latest Stories

Philippa Day: Young mother ‘took her own life after being told to attend PIP assessment’

Philippa Day: DWP phone agent ignored sobbing claimant who later ‘took her own life’

Philippa Day: DNS wins legal fight with DWP over ground-breaking release of secret report into benefit death

New figures set to provide clearer picture of disproportionate pandemic deaths of disabled people

Peer calls for disabled people to ‘take control’ over PA vaccinations

Rights concerns over major Mental Health Act reforms

High court hears of ‘catastrophic’ impact of ‘fitness for work’ system

Disabled high-rise leaseholders are living in post-Grenfell fear of fire and financial ruin

Disabled people highlight scores of lockdown concerns

Regulator investigates DWP over universal credit ‘cover-up’

Advice and Information

DWP: The case for the prosecution

Readspeaker

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2021 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web